Current Favorite Recipe

1/4 cup coconut oil (or equal parts for bigger batches)

1/4 cup baking soda (or equal parts for bigger batches)

Optional: Essential Oils (Please use high grade essential oils and stay away from brands that give the warning “for aromatic use only”. These can be harmful.)

Procedure: In a bowl, mix the ingredients together until you reach the desired consistency. It takes some time and may lead to second guessing, but you’ll eventually get there. When it is finished, all the lumps are smoothed out (well-blended) and it will be kind of creamy. Put in your favorite container. You may want a small scoop/spoon/knife/spatula for dispensing if you live in a cold climate.

Bonus: This recipe could be used as toothpaste in a pinch, but it will seem salty and the deodorant label could be a turn off for some individuals!

Zero Waste Challenge (Revisited)

A year ago, I mixed up my first batch of deodorant for my Zero Waste April Eco-Challenge, the original post (and recipe) can be found here.

A year later, I’m a lot wiser. My current recipe reflects my experience.

Container and Dispensing

In one experiment, I reused an old plastic deodorant container. You know, the push up style. For this type, the arrowroot powder was necessary because it’s main purpose was as a hardening agent, it kept it all together. But honestly, I found that moving away from plastic was the direction I wanted to go. The original recipe worked fine for this, but below I will discuss why I no longer like to use arrowroot powder.

I still use the small mason jam jar, which has gone traveling with me and has not yet broken. That said, I recently bought a smaller tin for travel as it is more compact and not made of glass.

I find it necessary to have a dispensing tool because the surface can be hard to dig into without something. I use a wooden butter knife that I had lying around, but you certainly have something already that will work just as well.

Nixing the Arrowroot Powder

My original recipe called for arrowroot powder in equal parts to the baking soda and coconut oil. But I know longer include this for the following reasons:

• arrowroot leaves a white residue on dark clothing
• arrowroot stings your pits after you shave (if you shave there)
• arrowroot provides no benefits beyond hardening the deodorant. Most of the year, in my climate, this simply isn’t necessary as the coconut oil is rock hard. Besides, the fewer ingredients, the better.

Check Out My Recipe Section

Remember to check out (and check back on) my recipe section as it is an ever-growing resource for zero waste and or vegan recipes with a frequent minimalist twist.

Until next time, keep that talk walking!